BRITISH SCHOOL (LATE 19TH CENTURY)
The face of Douglas Surname Black, 1109 (Sir James Douglas, also known as Good Sir James and the Black Douglas (c. 1286 – 1330)
inscribed (upper left)
oil on canvas, laid on board
35.5 x 30.5 cm

James Douglas, Robert Bruce’s indomitable captain during the Wars of Independence. While many Scots came to know him as ‘the Good’ Sir James for his championing of Bruce’s cause, it was his mastery of fear as a tool of war, his personal ferocity in battle, and his brutally effective raiding style that caused people in the north of England, often subject to raids, to bestow on him his most enduring title– ‘the Black’ Douglas. His reputation amongst the English was such that, during his lifetime, mothers in Northumbria and Cumbria sang to their children:

Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye,

Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye,

The Black Douglas shall not get ye…